The months spent at home have inspired creativity as Florence’s publishing houses, graphic design studios and bookstores devise unique books, games and gifts to mark these particular times.
Here’s a round-up of lockdown-inspired gifts from Florence.
Playing cards
Graphic design, current events and lifestyle come together in an all-female project by four friends who all tested positive for Covid-19. Throughout their isolation, the friends reinterpreted traditional Neapolitan cards, creating a set of pandemic playing cards. Thermometers, swabs, masks and other pandemic paraphernalia take centre stage.
The cards are available to pre-order by writing to info@progettoundici.it or on this Instagram page.
Books
We’ve joined forces with the Lorenzo de’ Medici Press to offer readers with a Florence Lockdown Book Bundle: our very own Healing not Broken commemorative book + Florence 61. A Photo Diary of Quarantine. Order these two books with unprecedented depictions of Florence (25 euro + shipping) as a memento of this atypical time in our lives. A must have for Florence lovers to look back on and remember, whether you were here or not.
Buy the Florence Lockdown Book Bundle here.
Postcards
Give the gift of Florence to friends this Christmas. Todo Modo bookstore has compiled a cute retro-fitted package of 20 postcards captured by Lapo Baraldi during the March lockdown. Firenze: 20 Vedute (15 euro) can be purchased at Todo Modo (via dei Fossi 15/R) or online. We’re also partial to Todo Modo’s Reading is Breathing cute face masks.
Firenze com’è
Designed by Muttnik, the same graphic design studio behind the postcards, Firenze com’è (35 euro) is a remarkable book (in English or Italian) reviewing architecture in a series of photographs by Lapo Baraldi, who took advantage of the city’s quiet time to capture Firenze. The book comes accompanied by a story by Elena Ronchi and has been published by Edizioni Forma. Firenze 2020. Il racconto fotografico del lockdown (29 euro) is another image-driven publication by FUL Magazine. A percentage of book sales will be donated to Careggi Hospital in Florence.
T-shirts
These limited edition t-shirts raise funds for the Misericordia di Firenze, with all donations going directly to the food aid programme Le Dodici Ceste. The t-shirts were created with GERARD Firenze and depict the Santa Trinita bridge. They can be purchased (35 euro, plus 5 euro for shipping if outside Florence) at the Gerard store Flow Run in piazza Strozzi or ordered by emailing barbara@italianwedding.com.
Other Firenze Ti Amo initiatives include the sale of artistic prints of photos taken in Florence during the March lockdown by Wolfgang Ludes, the renowned fashion and beauty photographer. Photographs cost 500 euro. More details can be found on the Firenze Ti Amo website.
